Chapter 3 - The Vultures of the Brooks Dynasty
I spun around toward the conservatory entrance just as three people strode past a furious,
red-faced Clara,
who was desperately trying to block their path down the orchid-lined corridor.
In the lead was a man in his late fifties wearing a bespoke white linen suit and a gold pinky ring the size of a walnut,
his silver hair slicked back over a face that bore a cruel,
weathered resemblance to Nathan’s father in the hallway portraits.
Beside him walked a younger man in his early thirties with restless,
shark-like eyes and a smirk that screamed of unearned arrogance,
followed closely by a tall blonde woman in a crimson designer dress whose gaze swept over my simple ivory linen outfit as if I had crawled out of a storm drain.
Before those strangers could take three more steps toward Evelyn’s hospital bed,
Nathan moved with a speed that blurred my vision,
stepping directly in front of me to form an impenetrable wall of charcoal wool and broad muscle.
“Victor,”
Nathan said,
his voice so cold that the tropical orchids lining the glass walls seemed to wilt in the sudden chill.
“The family summit is scheduled for twelve o’clock in the boardroom,
and it is currently eight-fifteen in the morning.
Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t have Marco throw you and Julian off the north cliff for trespassing in my mother’s private wing.”
Victor Brooks stopped ten feet away,
resting both manicured hands atop an ivory-handled walking cane that he clearly carried for vanity rather than support.
“Save the cartel posturing for the dockworkers in Phoenix,
nephew,”
Victor sneered,
his cold eyes darting past Nathan’s shoulder to size me up from head to toe before flicking toward the glass patio doors where Noah and Lily were standing frozen beside the koi pond.
“Julian received a very interesting phone call at midnight from one of the guards at the southern gatehouse,
claiming you brought a stray woman and two brats up the mountain in an armored convoy.
Naturally,
as the senior trustee of the Brooks family charter,
I came early to see what kind of desperate theater you were staging before noon.”
Julian chuckled,
stepping up beside his father while the blonde woman—whom I guessed was either Julian’s wife or Victor’s latest trophy—let out a sharp,
derisive laugh.
“Honestly,
Nathan,
even for you,
picking up a homeless beggar off Route 86 is pathetic,”
Julian mocked,
pulling a folded manila envelope from inside his suit jacket and waving it like a winning lottery ticket.
“Look at her shoes,
and look at those two little street rats outside by the pond!
My guy ran the license plate logs and checked the highway patrol cameras from yesterday afternoon—she’s Emily Parker,
twenty-eight years old,
evicted from a two-hundred-dollar-a-month trailer in Yuma last Tuesday with forty-seven cents to her name and a deadbeat ex-husband who owes money to half the casinos in Laughlin!”
My face burned with a humiliation so hot and suffocating that my vision swam at the edges,
not because of what Julian thought of me,
but because through the thin crack in the glass patio door,
I could see Noah’s small shoulders stiffen as he heard every single word of that cruel tirade.
“Don’t you dare look at my children,”
I said,
my voice trembling at first before hardening into the cold steel I had forged during three years of keeping two babies alive in a world that wanted to swallow us whole.
I stepped out from behind Nathan’s shoulder,
refusing to cower like the charity case they wanted me to be.
“You can read my eviction notice out loud on the evening news if it makes you feel like a bigger man,
Mr. Brooks,
but if you say one more word about my son and daughter,
you will find out very quickly that you don’t need a gun to lose your teeth.”
The blonde woman gasped in theatrical horror,
pressing a manicured hand to her diamond necklace.
“Did you hear that,
Victor?”
she shrilled,
her voice dripping with venom.
“He brought a feral trailer-park whore into Evelyn’s house and expects the board to recognize her as the mistress of the Brooks estate!
The charter clearly states that if Nathan isn’t legally wed to a woman of approved standing before Evelyn passes or becomes incapacitated,
control of the Phoenix-Tucson logistics corridor transfers immediately to Julian!”
“My mother is neither dead nor incapacitated,
Vanessa,”
Nathan said softly,
and the sheer quietness of his tone made Julian involuntarily take half a step backward.
“And as for the guard at the southern gatehouse who sold you that information at midnight,
you won’t need to pay him the second half of his bribe,
because Marco already fished his phone out of the canyon at four o’clock this morning.”
Julian’s smug grin vanished,
the blood draining rapidly from his cheeks as he looked nervously toward the patio,
where Marco was watching him through the glass with dead,
unblinking eyes.
“You can’t intimidate the family counsel at noon,
Nathan!”
Victor snapped,
slamming the tip of his walking cane against the marble floor to cover his son’s sudden cowardice.
“Even if you dragged a justice of the peace up this mountain today,
no woman with two starving brats would survive forty-eight hours in our world once she realizes a wedding ring from you is a bullseye painted on her back!
Tell the truth,
girl—has he even signed a contract with you yet,
or are you still holding that blank folder under your arm waiting for your payoff to run?”
All three of them looked down at the leather folder clutched against my hip,
where the signature line on the bottom page was visibly empty through the half-open cover.
A triumphant,
predatory smile spread across Victor’s weathered face as he stepped closer to me,
ignoring Nathan’s low growl.
“Listen to me very carefully,
Miss Parker,”
Victor purred,
reaching into his linen jacket to pull out a thick wad of crisp hundred-dollar bills bound in a gold clip.
“Here is ten thousand dollars in cash right now,
no strings attached,
and my driver is waiting outside in the courtyard to take you and your children straight to the Phoenix airport.
Walk out that door before noon,
leave my nephew to settle his family business like a man,
and neither you nor your little boy will ever have to worry about getting caught in the crossfire of a syndicate war.”
He tossed the heavy brick of hundred-dollar bills onto the floor right in front of my feet,
where it landed with a dull slap against the polished white marble.
“Pick it up,”
Vanessa sneered,
crossing her arms over her crimson dress.
“We all know women like you always take the cash and run.”
For three heartbeats,
nobody moved.
I looked down at the ten thousand dollars lying by my toes—more money than I had seen in one place during my entire adult life—and then I looked through the glass patio door at Noah,
who was holding Lily’s hand tightly while staring back at me with wide,
trusting eyes.
Then I looked at Evelyn,
whose frail chest was rising and falling rapidly against the pillows,
and finally up at Nathan,
who hadn’t tried to stop me,
hadn’t grabbed my arm,
and hadn’t broken the promise he made on the highway that I was free to walk away without a single consequence.
If I took Victor’s money and walked out,
these vultures would tear Nathan’s empire apart by sunset,
break Evelyn’s heart on her deathbed,
and leave a man like Julian in charge of the very streets my children and I would have to walk down.
Slowly,
deliberately,
I stepped right over the bundle of hundred-dollar bills without looking down at it again,
letting the heel of my shoe scuff the edge of Victor’s gold money clip.
I walked over to the mahogany table beside Evelyn’s bed,
laid the leather contract folder flat against the wood,
and picked up the heavy silver Montblanc pen.
“What are you doing?”
Julian barked,
his voice cracking with sudden panic as he lunged half a step forward,
only to freeze when Nathan’s hand slipped inside his charcoal suit jacket toward the holster beneath his arm.
Without taking my eyes off Victor’s furious,
purpling face,
I uncapped the pen and signed Emily Grace Parker across the bottom of the marriage agreement and the county license application in bold,
unwavering ink.
Then I held the silver pen out to Nathan.
“You made one fatal mistake when you ran my background check last night,
Victor,”
I said clearly,
my voice ringing through the glass conservatory as Nathan took the pen from my fingers,
his knuckles brushing warmly against mine before he slashed his signature beside my name without breaking eye contact with me.
“You thought that because I had forty-seven cents in my pocket,
my loyalty was for sale to the highest bidder.”
I closed the leather folder with a sharp snap and turned back to face the three intruders,
slipping my left hand through the crook of Nathan’s strong,
steady arm as if I had belonged beside him for years.
“My fiancé and I have a wedding to prepare for before the board meeting at noon,”
I told them,
lifting my chin as Evelyn let out a weak,
triumphant laugh from her pillows.
May you like
“And if you don’t pick up your spare change off my mother-in-law’s floor on your way out,
I’ll have the maid sweep it into the trash.”
